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Jaleel
Jaleel "Loodybear" Ali is a larger-than-life figure who owns Weeb Nation, controls the Old Guard, and pioneered 5-Man Jungle. He comprises one third of the Big Three and has been a member of the community since the very beginning. His charisma and charm are near legendary, and he is very popular both for his frequent appearances and for his unpredictable sense of humor. History Jaleel's legendary career in the community began in autumn of 2014, when his friend Ben (they met at Georgetown Day School) invited him to the final revival of Ian Moore's Minecraft server. Although Ben invited many of his friends (including Nico), Jaleel was the only one who actually used the server often, quickly rising from a minor participant to become a well-known figure among the fledgling gaming group. This brought him into contact with Eitan, Roy, Gabriel, and Max, all of whom would eventually accuse him of (unproven) theft on the Minecraft server. The constant thievery and climate of suspicion, coupled with the community's declining interest in Minecraft and Ian Moore's growing disaffection for a gang of Marylanders who he never saw in person, led to the quick collapse of the server. The Rise of League and the Old Guard During the ensuing period of anarchy, many alternatives came and went: Mineplex, playing Magic via facecam, a brief resurgence of Factions, and Hank's Minecraft server, which was mostly used for Conquerors variants. But at the end of it all, the only option that had sustained any long-term interest was League of Legends, a game Jaleel was perfectly situated to benefit from. His League skills vastly dwarfed those of the group, and his connections to other League players made him invaluable for filling out parties of 5. With his position thus solidified, Jaleel became an official fixture of the community, instructing its many members in the mysterious ways of League. From the end of 2014 to the middle of 2015, Jaleel and the group (which now included Asher and Everett) observed a status quo of sorts. They played Minecraft and League together, and Jaleel even tried inviting a few of his friends (most notably Ella), but for the most part he remained at a distance. However, everything changed in fall of 2015, when Jaleel started at a new high school (the Lab School of Washington), wiping out most of his preexisting connections. This drove him into a new reliance on the gaming group as a source of company, and he grew much closer with them. He also invited his new friend from school, Davis, although Davis did not become a major participant for months. Once again, the group would achieve a sort of status quo in this state, with a core nucleus of Max, Ben, Jaleel, Eitan, Everett, and Roy, with Gabriel, Asher, Davis, Ella, Jasper Sinclair, and Hank as peripheral members. This relative tranquility lasted throughout 2015 and into mid-2016, by which point Everett, Hank, and Jasper had lost interest in League of Legends. To fill the vacancy, a variety of new people were tested out, with the most prominent being Asher's friends Nirnay and Andrew and Jaleel's friends Nico and Cypress. None of them were particularly popular with the preexisting members, but Jaleel, who was at this point unquestionably part of the group, leveraged his position to essentially force the permanent inclusion of the new members. This compressed two widely different factions into constant interaction: the low-skill, placid core group of Max, Asher, Roy, Eitan, and Gabriel, and the high-skill, unruly gang of Cypress, Nico, Jaleel, Ella, and Ben (the group that would eventually form the Old Guard). For a time, the cliques uneasily coexisted, playing League and various Steam games together. However, the preexisting group was reluctant to fully merge with the Old Guard, given their seemingly insurmountable advantage in League skill levels, as well as their much more vulgar conversation matter and the perception that the newcomers moved on to a new game each month. Ultimately, the social cohesion of the veterans wore thin, and by early 2017 Gabriel, Nirnay, and Andrew were gone, marooning Roy, Asher, Eitan, and Max with Jaleel and what would soon become known as "the Weeb Nation gang". Weeb Nation on Skype Intentionalism vs Structuralism However, though Jaleel was in power for two years with little resistance, in recent months his rule has come under fire. To understand his style of leadership, as well as the controversy surrounding it, two schools of thought have arisen: one of intent and one of structure. The Intentionalist interpretation holds that Jaleel deliberately manipulated his way into power and then solidified his rule through demonstrations of force and stacking the community with his followers. These same followers would then form the monolithic base for his subsequent cult of personality, which Jaleel used to elevate himself into a figure of mythic charisma and infallibility. The Structuralist viewpoint portrays Jaleel as a miscast leader who was pressed into power by the eccentricities of Weeb Nation and the Peter Principle. The burdens of leadership transformed his relationship with his friends, turning everything into a delicate balancing act. Held hostage by his own inner circle, Jaleel struggles to appease the Old Guard while also trying to do what he thinks is best for the server. A cruel and unsympathetic individual, Jaleel maintains his power through three repertoires of rule. # Feigned weakness. Despite his obvious cunning and hyperactive personality, Jaleel frequent cities laziness and idiocy as justifications for his actions. This allows him to dodge problematic debates and disguise malicious sabotage as a mere joke. # Strikebreaking. Jaleel's celebrity status within the community means that within any alliance there will always be at least one Jaleel supporter. Because of this, Jaleel has successfully dismantled opposition movements countless times, with one major exception: The Great Schism. This brings us to... # Shows of force. Though much more common back in the Skype era, Jaleel has never above silencing threats to his power through kicks and bans. Since this tends to alarm his power base, he usually only does it as a last resort, although during the Great Schism it was applied liberally, wiping out 70% of the dissidents in one fell swoop. Jaleel's woeful incompetence at his job is easy to misconstrue as malice when paired with his many other faults (a short attention span, a sadistic sense of humor, the same objectivist view of fun as Ben, etc.). However, this harsh exterior belies an underlying vulnerability, which members of the Old Guard have exploited to bully him into adhering to the party line. His inability to say no to them has created an emphasis on individual rights over group wellbeing, and so long as Jaleel remains terrified of being seen as "the bad guy" by his followers, he can never be fully trusted, much less be an effective leader. Regardless of the differences between the two interpretations, both agree that Jaleel is not blameless. The fault for Weeb Nation's current ruinous state falls squarely on the shoulders of him and his flaccid leadership. But despite the sins of his past, Jaleel has redeemed himself in recent months. He participates wholesomely and interacts happily with new members, to the point where he has sent the second-highest amount of messages on the server. He's invested enough in the community that he resents Davis's weak server management, and plays DnD on a regular basis with Sayvion. Although his peace with Max is uneasy, he's proven that he deserves a place in the server; Jaleel is a good friend, and we're lucky to have him. Category:The Old Guard Category:The Big Three Category:League of Legends